This tour of Cambodian neighborhoods in Lowell introduces
first time visitors to Lowell and native Lowellians alike to the cultural
riches of the city's largest immigrant group. Since the mid nineteenth century,
Lowell has been recognized as a center for immigrants, who, since superseding
Yankee mill girls, have historically taken low paying jobs. Although Lowell's
textile mills closed down in the beginning of this century, new factories
sprang up, and to this day, even in an uncertain economy, newcomers continue to
settle in this historic industrial city. Lowell's heritage encompasses
immigrant and refugee resettlement as well as early capitalist enterprise. Most of Lowell's Cambodians came to the United States in the
early 1980s as refugees, victims of the brutal Phol Pot regime. Many came to
America from rural provinces where they practiced farming. Suffering from the
dislocation of war, Cambodians in Lowell have also had to negotiate a
relatively harsh climate and an unfamiliar urban environment. It is estimated
that Cambodians make up 20% of Lowell's current population of 103,000 people,
with large Cambodian communities in neighborhoods known as the Acre and the
Lower Highlands. The Acre, especially recognized for housing new immigrants,
includes a historic and ongoing presence of Irish, Greek, Hispanic, and
Southeast Asian communities. In going to popular Cambodian commercial establishments, such
as restaurants, markets, and video stores, as well as parks and places of
worship, visitors will witness how Lowell's most recent immigrants have made
this historic city their own. Cambodian newcomers to Lowell participate in the
city's immigrant tradition of adapting old sites to new needs and building new
structures to fill traditional requirements. This tour, the product of
collaboration between Cambodian community leaders, Middlesex Community College
faculty and staff, Lowell National Historical Park interpreters, and other
representatives from Lowell's educational, religious, and cultural agencies, is
an experiment in cross cultural and inter institutional sharing. We hope,
inasmuch as it is possible, that this tour illustrates the way Cambodian
Lowellians choose to represent their neighborhoods.